THE MORE I KNOW
THE MORE I KNOW
The
more I know about Bible prophecy, the less I know. What I do know is that we
cannot be dogmatic about human interpretations of Bible prophecy. That is why I
will not say that there absolutely is or is not a pre-trib rapture. Jesus gave
a parable of ten virgins. Five of them were ready to go in to the marriage
feast and five were not. All ten of them were believers. They were all waiting
for the Bridegroom’s return, but five had oil (The Holy Spirit) and five did
not.
But
from the language given there it doesn’t appear that the foolish virgins were
forever lost. They were counselled to buy oil from those who sell and I take
that to mean they had to pay for oil with their lives. They had to go through
the tribulation to be refined and purified just as it says in Daniel 12:10.
Now
whether the wise virgins go into the marriage feast at the beginning of the tribulation
or just before the wrath in Revelation 14, I am not prepared to say with any
certainty. Revelation 7 shows a huge crowd of saints that no one can number
standing before the throne in heaven. This is the first group mentioned as
being in heaven, but even there it is said: “These are the ones who come out of
the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb”. So in all honesty, it is very hard to nail down a time
and the best we can do is to make sure that we are among the wise virgins and
filled with the Holy Spirit.
But
there is another biblical scenario about which so many are so dogmatic. For
instance, the 70 week prophecy of Daniel found in Daniel 9:24-27 speaks of a
seventy week (490 year) period of time in which Daniel and his people have to
accomplish certain things and it ends with the coming of Messiah the Prince. Then
it says that Messiah is killed, but not for Himself. In other words He dies for
our sins and not His own) or another translation says that Messiah is killed
and has nothing, perhaps meaning that the mandates given have not been
completed.
But you
add up the weeks and they only add up to 69 weeks after which Messiah is
killed and included in this is the destruction
of Jerusalem 40 years later. In other words, the 70 week timeclock stops, just
as in a football game and God inserts something called “The times of the Gentiles.”
In other words, God hands the ball to the Gentiles and sends them into the
entire world to preach the Gospel and to win both Jews and Gentiles to Christ and
He gives them 2000 years to do so.
So we
have this gap between the 69th and 70th week called the “times
of the Gentiles” and Romans 11 Paul picks up the ball and explains a mystery to
us concerning this gap. Speaking of the Jews he says:
“And
they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief will be grafted in; for
God is able to graft them in again. For if you (Gentiles) were cut off from
what was a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into a
cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches
be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be
uninformed of the mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a
partial hardening has happened to Israel UNTIL THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES HAS
COME IN and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer
will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob and this is My
covenant with them when I take away their sins.” And then it goes on to explain
in verse 29 that God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. Romans 11: 23-27, 29.
So what
we see here is a 70 week mandate given to Daniel and his people. They can in no
way fulfill this mandate without the divine power of the Messiah, but they put the
Messiah to death and that stops the time clock one week short of the 70 weeks.
The Ball is handed to the Gentiles and they are given the commission to carry the
Gospel to the whole world. The Gentiles (The Church) carries the ball for 2000
years until… the times of the Gentiles is complete, or as it says in Romans 11,
“The fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
But
what happens next? It would appear that the Gentile believers are taken out of the
way and the time of Jacob’s trouble begins. This would be the final 70th
week in which all of the loose ends are tied up and the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And not only that, but in their
great tribulation Israel finally receives their rightful Messiah, for it is
said in Zechariah 12:9, 10.
“And it
will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and on
the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that
they will look on Me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one
mourns for an only son and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter
weeping over a first-born.
It
seems so clear to me that Israel’s clock stopped with the death of Messiah, the
ball is handed to the Gentiles to carry the Gospel to the whole world (which
they have done) and when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, their time
is up and the ball is handed back to the Jews, when through many conflicts such
as the world has never seen will result in the salvation of the Jews.
The
time of Jacob’s trouble is, after all, a time of Israel’s trouble, not a time
of Gentile trouble because at that time the fullness of the Gentiles will have
come in. So it makes perfect sense then that the Gentiles would be removed to the
marriage supper of the Lamb during the time of Jacob’s trouble. Those Gentiles
that have made themselves ready as a Bride adorned for her Husband will be
taken up to the marriage supper of the Lamb while those Gentiles,(The foolish
ones) that didn’t bother to have oil in their lamps will have to go through the
time of Jacob’s trouble with Israel to be “Refined and purified . They will be
saved yet as through fire.
It is
for the sake of this very clear scenario that I hold out hope for the resurrection
and catching away of the saints at the beginning or even before the time of
Jacob’s trouble.
There
are many mysteries sprinkled throughout the Bible that defy our doctrinal
interpretations. For instance in 1 Cor. 5:5 we find that a man has been having
relations with his father’s wife, meaning either his mother or his stepmother
and the church evidently writes about it to Paul because the man refuses to
repent of it and quit. To this problem Paul replies in a letter: “I have decided
to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Whaaaat?
This implies that there will be some believers who will not be “preserved whole,
spirit, soul and body” as per 1 Thess. 5:23, but only his spirit will be saved.
And
this is why we don’t want to be outer court Christians who “get saved”
(justified) but that never entered into the Lord’s process of sanctification.
Their spirit is saved through the sacrifice of Jesus, but they never surrendered
to Christ’s inner work in them. There will be bitter regret for them for they
will be “found naked’ and will never be clothed with glorified bodies.
Okay,
so I have digressed a bit, but the point is, there are many mysteries given in the
Bible, some of which we ignore because they don’t fit our particular doctrines.
But the Word of God is true from stem to stern and God will be proved true even
if every man be found to be a liar.
So with
all that we understand and all that we do not understand, we must press in to the
Lord and trust Him with our very lives. He has our best good in mind and even
though Bible prophecy is sometimes hard to fully understand, He wants us to
study it so that when these things come to pass, we will recognize them and we
will see His hand in the affairs of this world.
Many
people are going to fall away in the end because they did not study, they do
now know, they fail to see God’s hand in the affairs of this world and so they
surrender to the Beast.
This is
especially true of the tumultuous times ahead, for whether we go up in a
pre-trib resurrection and catching away, or if we have to endure tribulation,
either way requires the same level of readiness. Why not focus your life on
preparing as a Bride adorned for her husband? We have been assured that we will
not have to endure the wrath of God. But even then we must be ready to escape
for Jesus said in Luke 21:36:
“Keep
on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength (or may
be accounted worthy) to escape all of these things that are about to take place
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
I don’t
know about you, but I want to be one of those saints standing on the Sea of
Glass and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. We will be there in
glorified, immortal bodies in the everlasting vigor of youth, singing and
shouting His praises with exuberance not even possible in these mortal tents in
which we now dwell. Imagine the roar of millions of people as wave after wave
of praise ascends to the throne of God. Try to imagine a throne room that can
hold millions or even billions of people along with billions of angels. Imagine
the unimaginable four living creatures with eyes on every side and the 24
elders prostrating themselves before the throne. Picture Yeshua in all of His
glory seated beside the Father. All of the energy that upholds our universe is pulsating
through us in wave after wave of glory. There are millions of people and yet,
He seems to be looking only at you.
There
is a momentary pang of sorrow as you remember all that you have done, or failed
to do in your earthly life. Yeshua knows you better than you even know yourself
and there is nothing we can hide from Him. But then with a smile He erases even
the memory and dries our tears. Old things have passed away and behold all
things are made new. And He will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful
servant. YOU have been faithful over the little things, I will now make you
ruler over many things.”
The
more I know, the more I want to be there and the more thankful I am for the blood
of Jesus and His saving grace that saved a wretch like me. So I have given Him permission
to do whatever it takes in my life… for He has promised that what He has
started in us, He will finish.
Some
people declare with absolute certainty that there will be a pre-tribulation
rapture, while others say with absolute certainty that there will not be a
pre-tribulation rapture. Truth be told, both points of view can be proved in
scripture and so with this I conclude that God’s harvest plans are perhaps more
complex and multilayered than we allow with our points of view. Selah
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